SAHAYA is a non-profitable society with a mission to impact the lives of under privileged children, enabling them to maximize their potential and change their lives. Sahaya works primarily in the field of education.

Sir Isaac Newton was apparently sitting under an apple tree when his theory of gravitation came to him.

Team Sahaya was sitting under a tree in school, reading once a week to local children who had no storybooks, when the need for library struck us.Children need to read. They need to have access to books.
They need to have a library, Sahaya realized.

Sahaya is well into the planning and execution stages for expanding library in schools we adopted.

The Joy of Reading

Every time we open a book, we discover something new – a beautiful story or a fairy-tale, the strange and wonderful habits of animals, the mysterious world of science, and the customs of people who live in a far-distant country. And every time we open a book, we learn something new – we learn numbers and letters, colors and shapes, poetry and songs. Books are, quite simply, windows on the world! A library is a place to read and to enjoy and celebrate books.

What is a 'My Library'?
A 'My Library' is a place where there are books, children and committed and enthusiastic volunteers of sahaya to assist the children to develop their reading skills. 'My Library' is a place where each and every child feel its his/her own library.

Other libraries and My Library, what is the difference?

When it come to a other library, they usually for those who know how to read and they are seeking information on a specific topic, or a certain kind of fiction book to read.

Young children may not be able to read so they need to be attracted to the library and, whenever possible, assisted with their reading skills. Children need to feel comfortable in a library setting and should be gently encouraged to participate in the activities offered. Our volunteers will play an interactive role with the children. It is a very demanding job, but also a very rewarding one.

Few days left for giving kids the joy of reading..

Come donate one to the Sahaya Societies Book donation this year, and you could make this children's day a very special one for Kids..

Mahindra Foundation has started a program called Rise - An Initiative to help Entrepreneurs in various categories... they help these entrepreneurs grow...

After a conversation from the President (not Prathiba Patil)...we too registered ourselves in the initiative...they gave us some time...some 4 odd days before voting started...Once the voting started we saw a flurry of votes coming for us and also unprecedented coordination among ourselves to make this a success....

Few days back Sree ram had told me about the field trip of gowdevalli ZHPS children to HITAM college... i accompanied Sree ram and Karun to HITAM college with a vague idea of what was going to be done that day. We reached the college after a roller coaster ride :p at around 11 am.I was amazed by the striking Green building of the college and the ambiance of the vicinity.After we reached the school we met Eshwar whose commendable work to organize the event in the college awed me.. his work plan for the day which he was eliciting to the volunteers was well fabricated and the volunteers were all assigned a particular role to play.Later we had a semi formal induction program for the new volunteers where Karun and me shared our experiences with Sahaya followed by Sree ram's speech.Soon the buses arrived at around 1:30 from gowdevalli school with the children oozing with enthusiasm and excitement.The students were divided into four batches and were accompanied by the volunteers to various labs and the library. The volunteers did an impressive job in presenting the complex engineering labs to the school children by fitting in their shoes and relating them to day to day situations in their life.The children were keen in learning about the labs and the volunteers patiently answered their queries. It was encouraging to see some of the lab faculty also interacting with children.

Later all the students and the volunteers assembled in a class room where the children were asked write their feed back. A student from class 10th sang a song that he composed himself about Bharat matha.. Every phrase so inspiring.. every note so mellifluous... Hats off to his talent!!!!! :)

Anji

Next, student from HITAM college tickled the funny bones the crowd with his wit and mimicry . Another student from the school came forward to share his experience about the day and we were elated to know that after the trip, even he wanted to become an engineer. Perhaps the purpose of the trip was accomplished!!! we could inspire some of the students to become engineers and study hard to see themselves in college like HITAM. HITAM college lecturer Mr.Srinivas addressed the students and gave them a valuable message.He told the students the importance of 'creativity' and 'hard work' in life. He demonstrated with a live example about creativity and urged them not to ape others but always be creative and that their perseverance and hard work would help the scale heights in life. Later a teacher from the school thanked the Sahaya team and the HITAM college management for organizing the event followed by a tea n snacks break for the children and volunteers from the college. Later we had a group photo with the children and the volunteers and then the children left to their schools with a sense of accomplishment.. dreams of becoming engineers and yes all the sweet memories with 'akkalu' and 'annayalu' :)

We were very happy to see the success of the 'Field trip', the first of its kind organised by Sahaya. Kudos to the newbies who organised the event so well and making it a success in their very first session. Very happy to see the responsibility and the participation of the HITAM volunteers. Thanks to the management of HITAM college for giving Sahaya this opportunity and for all their support and encouragement.I believe that this field trip is an attempt from Sahaya that kindled a passion for engineering and other higher studies among the students and this spark if fanned in the right direction could spread its flames and engulf more students to aspire to MAKE IT BIG!!!!

I hitched a ride with dharani n sreeram, all set to carry out books from all places to segregate them and I can safely say that we did it till last night. We were able to manage to get 100's of various category books and around 150 dictionaries to launch a mini library today. As per plan dharani dropped me at ZPHS Shamshiguda on time along with books. As I reached n walked inside to be greeted by the children and after the usual “hello’s” and “hi’s” the children settled down in the ground where the Flag hosting was supposed.

By 8.30 Flag hosting program was started followed by HM sir's speech later followed by Chief guests speech. Which later followed by few nice speeches and songs sung by kids interestingly in English n Hindi as well. Children showcase their singing talents and few of the girls and boys, with no hesitation, came forward and sang beautifully! After the joyous singing we moved onto the most important part of the day - prize distribution. Divya, Vivek and along with few other volunteers who teach at Shamshiguda School also dropped in to help. Soon enough, we distributed the prizes for the winners and runner ups in the events organized couple of days in advance.

There after few more events like singing n dance programs one of the teaching faculty from school briefed the children about the library and how the books donors has helped us out by getting various books to the students there and we received a token of appreciation from the Principal n chief guests attended for the event.

Soon after winding up the event at Shamshiguds we bunch of volunteers from here joined rest of the volunteers who were already gathered @ ZPHS Kukatpaly. I think Nischal would be the best person who can post the detailed event held in KP school better than me.

Before leaving we had a group photograph with all the volunteers and as a perfect ending to the wonderful event, Dharani, provided all of us with yummy treats. Once that was done and the library in its place, we all left the place with a content heart as well as a content stomach.

Some interesting facts about our brand new mini Library —

Total number of books – 200

Books from our donors – 150 Dictionaries, 15 Atlas, Many story books

Books from our volunteers – 35(Many more still need t be segregated and categorized)

Books which reached us from various donors say that how eager everyone was to help out by giving their old books and donations, and the children must make the most use of them and here after its Volunteers responsibility to motivate children about how important books are to them and how much reading English books can help them develop their language and vocabulary. It would tempt anyone to read at least one book from there I am sure. As if those books weren’t already enough, there were some charts and information posters too.

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.” ~Charles W. Eliot

Welcome to newbies onboard and Special thanks to book donors and Friends of Sahaya for all the help and Happy 65th Independence day to all!!

Yesterday was filled with loads of memories ...I was little worried whether the schedule will b carried away in r8 way or not ...but wit nischal planning n dharani guidance everything went on well :) The day started by gathering the children participating in essay writing competition of 6th n 7th class , simultaneously quiz competition conducted for 8th n 9th children ...the children were very enthusiatic in participating for drawing competition ...after the competition while collecting papers i was really surprised by their art work !

so the day went on very excitingly conducting the competitions among different standards ...after filtering the best performance in writing quiz competition , oral quiz was done for few students by nischal , aastha n neelima ...Finally this day at zphs kp was fabulous bcoz of vijaya sree,saicharan , priyanka,vivek,amar,sai krishna,mahesh,vishal n his frdz ...Its my privilege to work in this organisation since it brings back my school life n i enjoy myself while spending time wit kids ...Eagerly waiting for the main day i.e 15th aug our independence day to celebrate ..ADVANCE HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY :) :)

This is an attempt to share my experience on 02/07/11 at kukatpally ZPHS school.

I would like to extend my sincere apology to my team for late latif appearance.Like every year we started this year in kukatpally the largest school of all that are being operated by SAHAYA.I entered the session with srikanth walking by my side but he is busy in setting paper for the assessment we had planned already.It takes some time for experienced batsman like dravid to show off his regular style(sorry sreeram).I played some balls watching classes of eeshwar,neelima,neeharika,nischal and kavya in which they are trying to teach students to introduce themselves in English some of them(volunteers) are succeeded and some of them(volunteers) are suffering but in the mean time we sorted things and gained students attraction in the problematic areas too(Thanks eeshwar and lokesh for helping me).

Thumbs up:For neelima and neeharika for their discipline in class and srikanth for setting up good paper for assessment.3 newbies and their valuable feedback.

Thumbs down:Helpers should pull up their socks in maintaining discipline while our pal is trying to explain something.

Inspiration:Thrown by nischal in maintaining his class and an able editorial member.

EXPRESSION came out of EMOTION(IDEA):It is to make teams in classes so that we could extend our attention to individuals.To have an interactive session before each session to discuss on handout provided.

Thanks giving:to ZPHS kukatpally management for extending thier support,aditya for making the plan for day,nischee for content of the day

Special thanks to nikilesh for picking me up at my home Sreerem for special appearance

Finally its the same history(the work we are doing) but this time with different pages(new students with respect to thier classes)

This academic year 1st activity CHART WORK is gonna help the kids a lot in learning the things quickly ..since we know that by seeing we can grasp things easily than listening ..Fabulous work by all my frndzz who coordinated n cooperated me ..The charts are prepared on basics of english that is parts of speech ..All have coordinated well in facebook by posting their ideas and by group chat the discussions went on well ..Niklesh has done a gr8 job by actively participating and posting many pics which inspired us alot ..As a part of preparing charts, i gathered the volunteers to share some views and distribute the work between ourselves .. I thank all of them specially because even under the absence of core team members they attended the meet and gave their valuable suggestions ..Seriously i experienced the hard work of core members as of a drop in an ocean ..But finally its the self satisfaction n productive work which sweeps away all the efforts put over ..i would like to thank rajshekar who pointed my few mistakes and corrected me :) Even when am discouraged at times its the volunteers who pushed n boosted me to complete the work successfully ..Frankly speaking am just a bridge between sreekanth and volunteers where an idea took its action form ..FLASH CARDS are on the way to take its implementation part ..Waiting eagerly for this academic sessions to start where all the volunteers are gonna rock on this year :) :) :)

It was like any other meetings we have already conducted...wanted to discuss the future aspects and the proper path to next year's activities...The day kicked off with a little fumble...there was a mis communication with the people at Lamakaan...but thanks to those people...co-ordinated well and gave us the space...

The meeting began on a slow note...(Thanks to my poor anchoring skills...)but gradually as more and more volunteers slowly trickled in...the interest and the involvement also grew up...Few experiences were shared....Karun shared his opinion on facing the challenges for Sahaya...Eshwar and divya explained the experiences while conducting the Science fair...And there was a highly motivating and inspiring speech from Revathi...she softly asked us to introspect ourselves....which is much needed....Just as the meeting was going a little towards the kingdom of boredom...Sowmya ma'am came in and filled our nerves with energy an enthusiasm...

A round of complex questions for her from Rajasekhar,Vivek,Srinivas turned the meeting into a sort of discussion...by the time she finished everyone had a clarity in handling the classes,motivated and were ready to take the future challenges to come ahead...in the meanwhile a bunch of volunteers ended up serving lemon water for the rest of us....A spontaneously made skit from "creative" Karun and "Comrade" Sreeram made us understand the classroom situation in the schools...Next came a bunch of surprises for our beloved president.....A series of wishes from far but near people....And the meet came to an end....Giving us all a much needed kick-start to what we are trying to accomplish...

Kids at school love art & crafts...
Their arts are all over classes...

Imagine what would happen if they didn't have their sketches, crayons, water colors, pencils.....

If we can make up for lack of some thing from some where from other sources... then it would allow us to provide them resources more efficiently...

BOOKS to BASICS is a new concept just based on that.

HELP us provide school supplies to those who are in need of them...

Envision a worls where every child has access to books n basics.

They do not have even basic material like drawing sheets, kids reuse papers over and over again, they do not have their required source like water colors, sketches, crayons...

Books - Basics is an extension to the last years Book collection Drive. Last year we ware able to gather very few books. This year Sahaya would like to to collect as many supplies as possible for the needy.

These are good days for us in SAHAYA here; days when we literally start seeing our dreams come true. We all had great dreams when we started SAHAYA…To expand to more number of schools …To make Computers just another learning tool for kids…to have an institutional/teaching organization that works on our syllabus round the year, researching and constantly tweaking and updating it to suit kids better.

But today suddenly all our great dreams don’t seem that great compared to where we stand, what we can achieve and what is required of us. The role of SAHAYA in an school two years back is no longer its role today; it’s much broader. The role of a SAHAYA volunteer two years back is no longer the same; it’s far greater.

Looking back at the year gone past, and all the classes we took as Sahaya volunteers, I keep trying to evaluate whether we changed anything in the system, whether we made a difference at all…

One of the reasons why Sahaya is such a great idea is because it offers responsibility to the volunteer and not simply an opportunity to feel good about himself / herself. Last year, this responsibility entailed that we come on time, come prepared, stick to the timeframe of the syllabus, and such. Looking at it this way, Sahaya is really an exercise in self-discipline.

And personally, I think I could have done better. Quite often, I thought that our teaching was not as effective as it could have been; sometimes it seemed as if the kids were having trouble grasping the lessons. Maybe that would not have been so if we were better prepared. Or maybe we were just expecting too much out of the kids….

This post is a tribute to all those volunteers who are coming forward and taking charge in SAHAYA. It’s function is to celebrate each and every one of you who have chosen to make a difference.

Team Sahaya @ 3rd anniversary

Journey for the future continues.... cheers to all those who are a part of it...

The idea of a science fair brings me memories from my school,the exhibits, the creativity, the fun filled learning and lots more!!!! Kudos to the Sahayans for giving this experience to the less privileged children and i am happy and privileged to be a part of it :)

Though i was partially involved in the science fair held in other schools, it was in ZPGHS, Narsapur i contributed to the best of my capability. Unfortunately i wasn't able to make it to the introductory session of the Science Fair in the school. My peers gave an introduction about the fair to the children and made it easy for us in the following sessions.

In the next session i along with my friends reached the school in the morning. It was my first visit to the school. The school was simple and its hard for one visiting for the first time to believe it accommodates three mediums English, Urdu and Telugu. The students were waiting eagerly for us to start of their work and the teachers were cooperative and encouraging.

Being my first session in the school it took a while for me to accustom to it and to understand the current status of work as the work had already begun in the previous session. I along with my friends started working on the model of a school. Later we went to the Urdu medium girls to tell about the fair and we were happy to see their response and oozing enthusiasm. We tried to accommodate as many ideas as possible. After that session we had few more sessions before we were finally ready for the D-day I.e 4th of march.

On the day of the Science fair all the volunteers reached the school by 10:00 am. We started of by arranging the classrooms to displays the exhibits. We had around 80-90 exhibits including the charts, working models paintings and art exhibits, each exhibit competing with every other exhibit. The two rooms where the exhibits were kept were vibrant and colorful with the display of models. There were charts of digestive system, eyes, kidneys, Petroleum production, vitamins, life cycle of a frog and many more covering different subjects. Models included the demonstration of Volcano, vermi compost, egg in water ,

Flow of current etc… There were some beautiful paintings, embroidery, colourful flowers made of soap, a beautifully woven mat of cigar packets and lots more in the arts section which were a feast to the eyes of the art lovers. And finally when the teachers came to see, the students proudly displayed their exhibits and confidently explained their work. Later we gave a small tea party to the teachers for all their support and encouragement without which it would not have been possible for us to conduct the fair successfully. The following day we gave away the participation certificates to all the participants and the Winners.

And like always it was an indelible experience working with Sahaya, the sessions filled with fun geared up with a noble motive, new friends, the enthusiastic children, obviously the work and not the forget the Sheer Kurma served to us in school, Lunch in Maharaja Dhaba beside the sugar factory(all those who were there tht day wud totally comply with me :D and the Samosa and chai in Gummadidala J…. memories I would cherish all my life.. :)

This is going to be the different post I’ve ever done on this blog.. But still, here goes..
One fine night, me Sreeram and Dharani were talking about Sahaya T shirts (things of the future, but still, not entirely a distant possibility)..
we should have a T Shirt, that says..........................that shows......... common this is what you need think and let us know....

Another motivating, fun filled and exhilarating session of Sahaya has again come to an end wit the dusk of the twilight... For me and my friends; it was our first experience in the Narsapur School where we found the school children really enthusiastic and adroit in their work... The journey that we had towards the school was more like a hang out plan wit our best pals and buddies than like being on an assignment!!We had a beautiful journey through the lap of nature wit the evergreen greenery where we also sighted plenty of monkeys hanging and amusing all over!!

We had been to the school to introduce them to the science fair which is being organized by our team Sahaya... The children in the school were eager to take another new challenge. Every student in the class came up wit their own topics rather than waiting to be assigned any job... This haste attitude of the students helps and encourages us in doing and serving them in even more better way...

A new challenge that Sahaya had accepted to face today was that of dealing with the Urdu medium students than regular Telugu medium students...Hmm, well, on the whole the day 1 of science fair preparation went well wit both the medium students...

Altogether , the day ended wit the sight of dawn-the setting of red restless glowing sun which never fails to rise back the next morning..

Where to start and what to say ?! There are many sweet memories attached with this organization since i have joined....first thing is that i would like to thank karthick , without him i would not join this family ....seriously am so attached with this organization within a few months in such a way that ,am unable to imagine myself without sahaya... even my friends or relatives are very much aware of this.....I would like to mention a example over here, now a days when I get a call ,everyone's first question is that are u at college or sahaya session...i have to specially talk about the SCIENCE FAIR that brought sahaya very close to me....Interacting with students about science fair is like extracting their inner talents...Many students came voluntarily saying that they wanna do some experiments and I was really shocked by listening how they want to implement it....InitiallyI thought that we need to push up them for doing the experiments but the reverse happened..I was being chased by them in intervals of time to help their project...
Coming to the other volunteers and core team members ...seriously speaking i didn't find any difference between us and the core team members .....their involvement is same as ours ,,to be frank more than us..since they guided the students in doing their experiment simultaneously managing all parts of the work to be done perfectly...i think they have reached one of their mile stones successfully by this science fair....

Jan 1st :- I should really speak a lot about this event ....i remembered my school days , and i would say that day was a platform of meeting diff school volunteers at a single place....at the end of throw ball or cricket , i felt to have one more match again...g.divya enjoyed a lot such that she requested the President to have such type
of events once in a month :-)...one more thing i observed is that Sreeram,Rajashekar,Dharani and Srikanth enjoyed that day as they were younger to us ....shouting and yelling..remembering now i feel to have that event again......Jan 26th :- I feel proud to participate in republic day after many years .....I enjoyed the songs and dances performed by students since i was an active participant in school days...thanx to sahaya for bringing back my school days :-)

A picture can say a thousand words, they say.. If that is true, then here are pics of Sahaya kids in ZPHS Shamshiguda n Gowdavally @ Art n Science Fair '11

Our idea behind Science fair is to bring out crusiety in kids by Motivation, Aspiration, Dedicaion.....

These kids are really Genius!

And I’m very proud to say that Sahaya figured prominently in their scheme of things, of the place Sahaya holds in their hearts.

Anyways I’d like to sign off by thanking all the volunteers who participated and were key to making these days fun for our kids and for also spreading Sahaya’s message among their peers. You guys make Sahaya rock !!

May our tribe grow and may Sahaya reach each nook and cranny of the nation, nay of the world !!